{"id":66798,"date":"2021-08-19T10:25:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T13:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=66798"},"modified":"2021-08-21T18:53:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T21:53:13","slug":"event-debates-community-control-over-water-sanitation-and-privatization-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=66798","title":{"rendered":"Event Debates Community Control Over Water, Sanitation and Privatization in Rio’s Favelas [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"This is our latest article in a<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>series<\/em><\/a> created in partnership with the <\/em>Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies<\/em><\/a> at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the <\/em>Digital Brazil Project<\/em><\/a> on human rights and socio-environmental justice in the favelas for RioOnWatch.<\/em><\/p>\n

On June 30, the Working Group on Water and Sewerage and the Participatory Public Policy Front, both part of the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN)<\/a>*, organized the public online debate \u201cCommunity Control Over Water, Sanitation and Privatization: The Sustainable Favela Network Discusses Water<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The aim of the event was to raise awareness about the importance of water and to create proposals and actions for community control over a basic resource that everybody has a right to. The online event was organized in a fishbowl format allowing all participants to speak and hold conversations during the event. To explain the format, SFN articulator Camila Moreno told the audience to \u201cimagine a room with chairs in a circle, and three in the middle, occupied by people who have put themselves forward to debate the subject proposed: this is the \u2018fishbowl.\u2019 Those on the three chairs are allowed to speak for a minute and a half, and if they\u2019re asked question, they can have another minute and a half to reply. At any time, anyone in the audience can raise their hand to take part in the fishbowl and have their turn to speak. This person will substitute the participant who has been in the fishbowl the longest. The \u2018fishbowl\u2019 will keep changing, with three different people having a conversation at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The live event had a special guest to help inform the audience and make the meeting more dynamic: Alexandre Pessoa<\/a>, professor and researcher at the Joaquim Ven\u00e2ncio Polytechnic School of Health<\/a> at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz<\/a>). Taking on the role of the fishbowl’s \u201csea urchin,\u201d Pessoa opened the event with a provocative speech. One of his themes was learning about the interconnectedness of human beings and nature through the pedagogy of waters. The professor also highlighted that in order to better understand the privatization of CEDAE<\/a> (Rio\u2019s water and sewage public utility) it is important to understand the National Water Resources Plan<\/a>, implemented through the National Water Security Plan (PNSH)<\/a>, which aims to guarantee strategic water infrastructure in every region of Brazil.<\/p>\n

Pessoa also said that the PNSH aimed to avoid natural disasters, such as flooding, guaranteeing that such events would be prevented from affecting current and future generations. \u201cI believe this Plan is still focused on \u2018gray engineering\u2019 (as opposed to \u2018green engineering\u2019). It made no use of ecological infrastructure; it did not take more current points of view into account. It does not propose social technologies\u2026 The state of Rio has a water security policy and is going to implement a state water security plan<\/a>. The problem is moving away from paper and creating real change: that\u2019s the first challenge. In order to avoid water stress, it\u2019s important to plan and to organize the city. It\u2019s not enough to put the blame on rainfall. The problem is that there\u2019s a quantity of water and a level of consumption. Supply and demand. So how can we work with this?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Last year, the state government decided to change the regulatory framework<\/a> and put CEDAE<\/a> up for auction. Pessoa, who is also a specialist in environmental sanitation, said that the privatization will affect the local population<\/a> in many ways, including in relation to sewage<\/a>. \u201cThis is a good moment: basic sanitation in Rio has never been debated as much as it is now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a hot topic, we can\u2019t let sanitation stay hidden under the ground. Thinking about basic sanitation doesn\u2019t just mean preventing illnesses, it\u2019s also about generating income and improving quality of life. This is a crucial perspective. Whether we\u2019re talking about public sanitation, sanitation for the home or for the community, all of them depend on housing conditions. Sanitation alone is not enough. If we don\u2019t have urban planning, how will we have sanitation? Sometimes [the utility] creates a [sewage] network but doesn\u2019t link it up to the houses that are furthest away or the most precarious. Many houses don\u2019t have bathrooms. If sanitation doesn\u2019t reach everyone it can\u2019t be called universal. The Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office won their case in the courts and now CEDAE is obligated to make a contingency plan<\/a> due to Covid-19<\/a>. Without water, there’s no cleaning your hands<\/a> and protecting yourself from the disease. Remember that water is not just for drinking, it\u2019s part of every aspect of our lives,\u201d Pessoa said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The next person to speak in the “fishbowl” was Alessandra Roque, a resident of the favela of Morro da Provid\u00eancia<\/a>, in Central Rio, who shared her experience with water and sanitation where she lives. \u201cWe created a project called \u2018Wash Your Hands<\/a>,\u2019 putting public sinks in the streets for people to use<\/a>. We have a bigger problem in Provid\u00eancia: we don\u2019t have water supplied to us every day. So, we created a reserve with a one-thousand-liter water tank, allowing people to wash their hands every day. Because how can you say, \u2018wash your hands every other day?\u2019 That\u2019s not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque spoke about an ecological sewage treatment technology that is already in place in Provid\u00eancia. \u201cWe have installed an evapotranspiration system to treat our sewage<\/a>. It’s a possibility inside the favela. It\u2019s viable, and the proof is that we did it\u2026 Some houses here are not linked to the public sewerage system because of the way they were built, which means that some can’t access the network. Why can\u2019t the authorities install this kind of treatment system if we know it\u2019s possible? We\u2019re here, proving that it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers, Mangroves and Historic Problems<\/h3>\n

The Guandu River<\/a> was a small river until the 1950s, when it received a water transfer from the Para\u00edba do Sul River, located in the municipality of Barra do Pira\u00ed, in the south of the state of Rio de Janeiro, feeding it with a large volume of water. Currently, the Guandu River supplies water to approximately 80%<\/a> of the population of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Near the municipality of Serop\u00e9dica<\/a>, the Guandu River meets four other water sources from Greater Rio’s Baixada Fluminense<\/a>, namely the Queimados, Ipiranga, Po\u00e7os and Cabu\u00e7u rivers. These four rivers are fed with waters from the Tingu\u00e1 Biological Reserve and are pure and crystalline according to Wladimir Loureiro, a representative from the Rio Archdiocese<\/a>‘s Pastoral of Integral Ecology<\/a>. \u201cThese rivers are special; they are like rivers from paradise in which you can dip your hand and drink the water. When the rivers reach the Queimados industrial district<\/a> they receive high levels of toxic substances and become impossible for human consumption. But nature is pure resistance. There is a lagoon area at the point where these rivers meet the Guandu, which includes the Guandu and Quiabal lagoons, where nature reacts to this toxicity and somehow manages to dilute it. It\u2019s in these lagoons that nature itself, as a form of reaction, created geosmin<\/a>. Through heroic efforts, CEDAE manages to treat this water with relative competence. However, for several reasons, the company decided to dam these lagoons with a construction that they call ‘protection of the water intake’<\/a>.\u201d According to Loureiro, this intervention is directly impacting dozens of families who make a living from fishing and from family farming<\/a>. \u201cThese people had a decent life, but not anymore. They are invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scenario described by Loureiro is similar to the situation observed in the mangroves of Rio\u2019s West Zone<\/a>, a topic covered by Helo\u00edsa Helena<\/a>, Ialorix\u00e1 (priestess in the Afro-Brazilian religions) and local activist. \u201cThe mangroves are being heavily polluted. The mangrove is a big symbol of resistance. I live close to a street called Canal Jardim do Pia\u00ed, which used to be called Canal 1. The canal filled up last year and is very polluted. A nursing home flooded because of the mangrove water spilling over. We’ve been managing to clean the area up, but we know that it won\u2019t make a difference. I\u2019m grateful to the partners who helped with the clean-up [of the mangrove], but we need a larger structure,\u201d she said. In her research, she found public documents from the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC)<\/a>, where she saw the name of Rua Levy Neves, a road cut by the canal, in the neighborhood of Guaratiba<\/a>. \u201cI keep thinking to myself, this is such an old story. Why hasn’t it been resolved? Why did we let it get this far? This canal empties into the Brisa beach and starts, more or less, in Santa Cruz. Its waters pick up sewage from the entire population, so they are really dirty!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nWater pollution was also mentioned by Irenaldo Silva, a nurse technician and former president of the Pica-Pau<\/a> Residents\u2019 Association, in Cordovil<\/a>, North Zone<\/a>. He shared a concern that he has experienced in his neighborhood and that is familiar elsewhere: the lack of connection between the sewage systems in individual homes and the [public] sanitation network. \u201cMy concern is not a new one: [the community] create[s] a sewage network, but this sewage is dumped into the river, or in a ditch. You basically replace one problem with another,\u201d he said. \u201cHere in Pica-Pau, a [public] sewage treatment system was created on the Iraj\u00e1 River<\/a>, in 2015, so that the [community’s] sewage could [finally] be treated there and then be emptied clean into Guanabara Bay<\/a>. It turned into a white elephant, as it\u2019s stopped working<\/a>.\u201d Silva also mentioned the ongoing cases of intestinal infections due to people consuming contaminated water. \u201cThe sewage is contaminating drinking water, people are drinking sewage water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Decentralized Solutions Must Go Hand in Hand with Universal Access<\/h3>\n

Despite its historic lack of basic sanitation, the city of Rio de Janeiro was once a pioneer in sewage treatment<\/a>. Currently, according to the Industry Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan<\/a>), with research based on the National Sanitation Information System (SNIS<\/a>), only 67% of the population<\/a> of Rio has sewage collection. That means that a third of the population does not have safe sanitation. To try to change this reality somewhat, Tito Cals and Leonardo Adler started to work on ecological sanitation in favelas and rural communities in the state of Cear\u00e1, in the Amazon<\/a>, and in Rio. In Rio, the project linked up with the already established demand for an ecological sewerage system in the community of Vale Encantado, in Alto da Boa Vista<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s North Zone. The president of the local cooperative and of the residents’ association, Ot\u00e1vio Barros, joined up with Cals and Adler, and together they created a biosystem for treating domestic sewage<\/a>, composed of a biodigester and a rootzone. A biodigester functions like a large tank, where the organic material deposited is consumed by bacteria and at least three byproducts are created from the process: biogas, biofertilizer and compost.<\/p>\n

According to Cals, working with the community was fundamental for the installation of this type of system. \u201cWe found a way of working in which the residents participated in every stage of the project, especially during execution. The aim is for people to participate, to understand and become agents of change, being able to replicate this technology [elsewhere]. This was the format we found to link academic knowledge with our desire to create social impact. Vale Encantado was the first favela that we worked in<\/a>. We are very grateful to Ot\u00e1vio for having come to us in 2011 with the aim of solving the [community\u2019s] sewage problem,\u201d said Cals. \u201cWe are still on this journey, but we are sure that these decentralized solutions<\/a> are not the only ones. They can work alongside more centralized solutions. Like in the cases of the favelas of Rocinha<\/a> and Mar\u00e9<\/a>, where in some areas there\u2019s no space to build a biosystem, so the only way forward would be to centralize treatment and take the sewage away to a treatment plant. We are aware that ecological sanitation can complement universal access to sanitation, which is something that we\u2019re unfortunately not close to achieving,\u201d concluded the environmental engineer.<\/p>\n

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Floods Caused by Poorly Executed Construction<\/h3>\n

Heavy, frequent rain goes alongside a lack of maintenance of drains, infrequent waste collection and irregular disposal. Other factors can also be added to the mix, such as the silting of canals and rivers. These are some of the elements that damage and lead to historic problems for Rio’s water systems. Tuned into possible improvements for their neighborhoods, municipalities and the country, women are on the frontline to demand that they are truly given access to their social rights.<\/p>\n

A community leader from City of God<\/a>, in the West Zone, Iara Oliveira<\/a>, is co-founder of an organization called Alfazendo<\/a>. She recalls with affection the history of the bodies of water that run through her community, as well as the interventions they have undergone. \u201cThe Rio Grande, a river that cuts through City of God, is born in the Pedra Branca State Park<\/a>, comes from Bangu<\/a>, and runs through Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/a> supplying water to all of the West Zone. So, the city government started a process of basic sanitation in the favelas and ended up dumping the sewage into the storm drains. When City of God was being built, we had a sewage treatment plant inside the neighborhood. So all the sewage that came from people\u2019s homes was treated and was then emptied into the lagoon. Over time, the city and the state government, who were responsible for looking after this system, closed it down, but kept the place there with sewage dammed inside City of God,” recalls Oliveira.<\/p>\n

After the sewage treatment stations were shut down, floods became more frequent in the community. Oliveira remembers two of them killing favela residents<\/a>. \u201cWhen I was a child, from 1966 up until I was about 10 or 11, we used to swim in this river, there were fish and plants growing. Now it\u2019s a dead river,\u201d she said. \u201cCity of God is surrounded by rivers that could be maintained and revived. When we talk about water scarcity, about sewage issues, we see that the city suffers from a lack of planning. Not all favelas and houses have water tanks; this is a reality for favela residents. So, when we run out of water, we really run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nThe lack of separation between river water and wastewater causes sewage floods and leads to other consequences. Oliveira explained that, \u201cIt\u2019s a struggle. Rio de Janeiro urgently needs a project and a review of its sanitation systems. They came up with a stopgap operation here in City of God. The city government got rid of the old sewage treatment network and put in a new one that is even worse than the old one, because now when it rains, everything floods. As citizens, we need to supervise this, we need to look at new technologies so that future generations think about water as a social right,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

Geiza de Andrade, who also lives in Rio\u2019s West Zone, is a socio-environmental educator and a resident of Vila Kennedy<\/a>. Andrade spoke about the community’s experiences with official construction works, which usually cause problems and damage for favela residents. \u201cEven when residents told him what was going on, the City’s engineer wouldn’t listen to anyone, although we had meetings\u2026 While the construction was taking place, they [the City’s workers] weren’t in the area, and we watched what happened: people just covered up the storm drains. Now, within a three-block range, we can only find one drain, and it’s quite far away. So, places that didn\u2019t flood started to flood, and it was a mess,\u201d said Andrade. \u201cIt\u2019s really sad when we know the route that water takes, and people want to build a barrier. I always talk about the importance of water with the kids at school, about rainwater and the journey it makes\u2026 Children in the favela know how important water is because there’s been a lot of deforestation. And that’s another worry we have, that with fewer trees in the forest, water runoff will be even more intense. So, we\u2019ll see floods in places where we didn\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the Interactive Live Event Here<\/a>:<\/h3>\n